Hardtack Recipe – The Survival Bread That Lasts A Lifetime

Maybe you already know what hardtack is and you’re searching for the best step by step survival hardtack recipe? A hardtack recipe that will last many decades!

Or maybe you’ve just recently heard the term “hardtack” and want to learn more about this incredible survival bread.

Either way, this article’s got you covered. Today we’re going to discuss hardtack and show you how to make hardtack at home (plus a few bonus survival foods as well!):

What Is Hardtack – Brief History

Hardtack Recipe (ingredient list)

How To Make Hardtack At Home

Pemmican – Hardtack’s Meat Alternative

Bonus – ANZAC Biscuits Recipe

As A Way To Introduce You To Skilled Survival, We're Giving Away Our Family First Food Planning Guide.Click Here To Get Your FREE Copy Of It.

What Is Hardtack – Brief History

When it comes to survival rations, you have to hand it to the crews on old-fashioned sailing ships. They proved invention is the mother of necessity.

For thousands of years, when currents and wind were a ship’s only means of propulsion it took months to cross the high seas. And yet, nearly every corner of the world was explored and mapped by the end of the “Golden Age of Sailing“.

These sailors endured long voyages that would regularly last months without a harbor. Sometimes it was years before returning back to their homeport.

These long trips required food stores that could last for long periods out at sea. Voyaging long distances meant limited opportunities to resupply; remember this is before refrigeration and canned food!

So one of the staple foods on these ships was a simple, dense, hard survival bread called Hardtack. A survival biscuit made with three simple ingredients: flour, water, and salt.

Hardtack is a solid survival bread that held up well to rough transport and kept nearly indefinitely. Since it was both inexpensive and nearly indestructible, this hard biscuit often made up the majority of a sailor’s rations.

It became such a widespread staple, different ports had unique names for hardtack such as cabin bread, sea biscuits, survival bread, or ship biscuits. Entire industries sprang up in ports to support the resupply of ships with more of this hardy stuff.

Now, if the recipe of flour water and salt sounds bland, you’re in good company. When a ship’s cook wasn’t within earshot, sailors often called it “dog biscuits,” “molar breakers” or “sheet iron.”

Traditional hardtack is immensely HARD.

Why? Because you bake it, leave it out to dry, and store it with moisture absorbing desiccants to prevent spoilage. Each of these steps removes all moisture, making it difficult to bite and chew in its raw form.

Often you must soften it to make safe chewing possible.

However, there were many methods to soften the hard biscuits, including:

soaking them in coffee

drowning them in beer

frying them with oil to make a hardtack pancake

pounding them into crumbs with a rifle butt and stirring them into soup – (which both thickened the soup and softened the crumbs)

Pretty resourceful, I’d say!

While soaking them in coffee is still popular. Many people choose to eat them like toast by adding syrup or jam, providing a sweet (and calorie-dense) snack.

Of course, with only three ingredients, you can easily learn how to make hardtack at home for yourself.

Many of the commercial recipes use additional ingredients. This is an attempt to improve the texture and taste, but these additions reduced the shelf life.

There are many recipes variations for homemade hardtack. But these homemade recipes are optimized for rapid consumption instead of prolonged storage.

Common commercial additions are sugar, honey, spices, powdered milk or eggs, and even oil and butter.

However, these hardtack recipes are best kept refrigerated since the additional ingredients compromise the shelf life. Especially, oil and butter which will go rancid quickly if left unrefrigerated.

If your ultimate goal is to store some survival calories for years to come, I recommend sticking to the three basic ingredients.

With such a long history and a fool-proof, inexpensive hardtack recipe, it’s no wonder it remains popular today. It’s become a food staple for homesteaders, survivalists, and preppers alike.

As A Way To Introduce You To Skilled Survival, We're Giving Away Our Family First Food Planning Guide.Click Here To Get Your FREE Copy Of It.

Hardtack Recipe (ingredient list)

You can make hardtack with any flour you so choose.

Whole wheat? Absolutely, works great.

Gluten-free? Yes, you can.

Rye flour? A great alternative for those with wheat allergies.

With an afternoon of work (mostly baking), you can have an ample supply of hardtack that will last years.

Hardtack Ingredients

Start by gathering the ingredients you’ll need:

2.5 cups flour (+ a little extra)

1 cup water

1 tbsp salt

You’ll also need a few utensils:

large mixing bowl

rolling pin (or improvise!)

cookie sheet

How To Make Hardtack – The Ultimate Survival Bread

Note: If you prefer to watch a video instead, skip to the end of this section.

Mixing The Ingredients

Mixing Ingredients Together

Start by mixing the flour and salt in a large bowl.

Pro tip: This is a great time to remove any rings on your fingers. Hardtack dough is very sticky, and you’ll have a hard time getting your rings clean later – trust me I know!

After you mix your dry ingredients well, begin adding the water in small amounts. You can mix and knead the dough by hand or with the bread hook attachment on a stand mixer.

Again, it’ll be extremely sticky at first but will quickly turn into a uniform dough.

If it’s still sticky after several minutes of kneading, add a small amount of additional flour.

Ball Of Hardtack Dough

Once your dough forms a solid ball, dust a work surface with flour and place the dough on the floured surface.

Rolling The Dough

Using a rolling pin, heavy pint glass, wine bottle or even your hands, roll the dough out to roughly 1/4″-1/2” thick.

Cut the dough into serving size portions.

Roll To Spread Dough

This will be easier if you form the dough into a rough square (rather than a pizza crust circle).

If you’re not very experienced using a rolling pin you can use pencils as guides! Just lay a pencil on either side of the dough and press down until the rolling pin is resting on the pencils.

Now, rolling back and forth will give you a nice flat piece of dough.

Cutting The Dough

Cutting Hardtack Dough

When you’re happy with your dough shape, place it on a cookie sheet.

Now using a knife or dough cutting blade, cut it into manageable “cracker” size pieces. Ideally, you want them roughly the size of a saltine or graham cracker.

This size is best for long-term storage and it makes a good serving size for later.

I recommend a size that will still fit in a mug if you choose to soak with soup or coffee!

Poking The Crackers

Now, with your “sheet of crackers” cut to size, poke small holes spaced evenly across each piece.

Poking Holes In The Dough

These holes help the biscuit bake consistently. Ideally, you want both the edges and the middle of the hardtack biscuit to have a consistent bake.

The holes allow more moisture to escape and keeps the dough from rising in the oven.

Also, the holes make it easier to break the tough biscuits into smaller chunks later for eating.

Baking The Crackers

Hardtack Into The Oven

Now, bake the dough for 25-35 minutes in a 375deg oven, until it just begins to brown on the surface.

You’re looking for a very light tan, more than an actual brown. Its very easy to scorch the flour, so pay close attention.

When you have a light tan color, take the survival biscuits out of the oven and allow it to cool COMPLETELY. You want it to be 100% cool before putting it into any package to remove as much moisture from the biscuits as possible.

Hardtack Out Of The Oven

Any trace of excess moisture will cause your hardtack to spoil prematurely.

So if you live in a relatively dry climate, feel free to leave it out for several days to dry some more before storing.

Storing Your Hardtack

You can store dry hardtack for many months or even several years – if it remains dry.

Comments

I carry two boxes of Matzo “bread” and a jar of peanut butter in my pickup truck. I put bread in quotation marks, because it’s like a brown cracker. This was the unleavened bread that the Israelites baked before Moses led them out of Egypt (captivity) It keeps indefinitely, but without peanut butter, or Underwood deviled ham ( I know, not kosher), the taste is bland. You can buy it in supermarkets that have Jewish foods. After reading your article, I plan on adding hardback to my “behind the seat” pantry.